uplifting news

Read recent happy news and other uplifting news stories from around the world on Newser.com

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Kid Mistakes SVU Star for Real Cop, Gets Real Help

Mariska Hargitay stops filming to help reunite lost girl with mom

(Newser) - At their best, actors transform into the characters they play—in the case of Mariska Hargitay, even when the cameras aren't rolling. The star of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit must've gotten quite a confidence boost while filming one of the final episodes in the series' 25th...

NBA Player Tanks Free Throw to Give Fans Chicken

'He's a man of the people!' announcer says of Houston's Boban Marjanovic

(Newser) - It was a meaningless free throw in a meaningless game, but Boban Marjanovic turned it into one of the funniest moments of the NBA season. (Watch it here .) The Houston Rockets player deliberately missed his second shot so Los Angeles Clippers fans could get free chicken, reports the Athletic...

7-Year-Old's Lemonade Stand Touches an Entire Community

Alabama's Emouree Johnson raises $10K to help pay for mom's headstone after her sudden death

(Newser) - Emouree Johnson's mom passed away suddenly last month, and as funeral expenses started stacking up, the Alabama 7-year-old did the only thing she could think of: opened a lemonade stand to raise money to pay for Karli Bordner's headstone. Per WAFF , Emouree sold cups of the tart beverage...

Missing Dog Has 'Tale That Hollywood Would Love to Tell'

'Stray' in Michigan was Mehrad Houman's Mishka, who vanished in California in July

(Newser) - A dog missing in California since the summer turned up more than 2,300 miles away in suburban Detroit. Police in Harper Woods, Michigan, responded to a call about a stray dog last week, picked up the terrier mix, and contacted an animal welfare group. The Grosse Pointe Animal Adoption...

NYC's Biggest Girl Scout Troop Faces Backlash Over Migrants

Troop 6000 has embraced the city's newest residents, but not everyone is happy about it

(Newser) - Once a week in a midtown Manhattan hotel, dozens of Girl Scouts gather in a spare room made homey by string lights and children's drawings. They earn badges, go on field trips to the Statue of Liberty, and learn how to navigate the subway in a city most have...

Conjoined Twin Abby Hensel Has Been Married Since 2021

According to public records

(Newser) - Abby Hensel, the conjoined twin of Brittany Hensel and one half of the TLC reality series Abby & Brittany, has been married since 2021, according to public records revealed this week by Today . The Hensel twins first came to the public's attention in 1996 when they appeared on The ...

Students From Footloose School Asked, Kevin Bacon Listened

Actor agrees to visit Utah's Payson High School, where 'Footloose' was shot, on prom day

(Newser) - According to Bacon's Law , aka the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, every Hollywood actor can be tied to the 65-year-old Bacon within just six steps. Students in Utah are about to narrow that status for themselves by one degree, after Bacon, in tandem with the movie's 40th anniversary,...

MacKenzie Scott Drops Another Philanthropy Bomb

$640M, more than double her initial plan, goes to nonprofit applicants

(Newser) - MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire philanthropist and author, had promised to give $1 million each to 250 organizations last year through an "open call" for applications. She apparently changed her mind. On Tuesday, she announced she would give $640 million to 361 organizations instead, reports the AP . That makes her...

Driver Praised After School Bus Blast: 'Courage on Wheels'

Quick-thinking Kia Rousseve, 28, got kids off her bus moments before it exploded in New Orleans

(Newser) - A young bus driver in Louisiana is being credited with saving the children in her charge after she got them all off the bus just moments before the vehicle exploded. Kia Rousseve, 28, tells NOLA.com that she was driving her regular route on Wednesday morning through the Central City...

On 4th Day, a Break for Family Stuck in Flooded Outback

Rescuers reach group of 7, including a celebrated artist and member of nomadic family

(Newser) - "Bush savvy" though they are, fears for a family of seven lost in the Australian outback had mounted Wednesday with what was initially no sign of the group for a fourth day. Three elderly people and four children ages 7 to 17 had set out in two vehicles around...

Wildlife Center Gets Creative in Caring for Newborn Fox

Staffers in Richmond, Virginia, dress up in fox costume to keep baby from habituating to humans

(Newser) - Animals often forge a strong bond with the first creature to care for them (typically their mother), a phenomenon called imprinting. So when an abandoned baby fox showed up at Virginia's Richmond Wildlife Center shortly after it was born, staffers wanted to make sure it made the right imprint—...

Bald Eagle Rescued From SUV Grille
Bald Eagle Rescued
From SUV Grille
Mar 13, 2024 5:30 PM CDT

Bald Eagle Rescued From SUV Grille

It was stuck after collision on Maryland highway

(Newser) - It would be a bad situation for any creature, let alone America's majestic national bird. An animal control officer in Maryland came to the rescue Saturday after a bald eagle was trapped in the front grille of an SUV, NBC Washington reports. In a Facebook post , officials in Calvert...

WWII Vet, 100, Is Getting Married Near D-Day Beaches

American Harold Terens' fiancee is four years his junior

(Newser) - Harold Terens and fiancee Jeanne Swerlin kissed and held hands like high school sweethearts as they discussed their upcoming wedding in France, a country the World War II veteran first visited as a 20-year-old US Army Air Forces corporal shortly after D-Day. Terens, a gregarious and energetic 100-year-old, will be...

He Hit a Bird-Watching Mark Once Thought Unreachable

American Peter Kaestner is the first to document 10K different species

(Newser) - Peter Kaestner has seen 10,000 different bird species, which, if you're not familiar with birding, sounds pretty impressive. If, however, you are familiar with birding, it's far more than that. As in, it's unprecedented. Last month, the 70-year-old retired American diplomat became the first person to...

'80s Group Had One Single. Now, a Record Deal

Zenana's 1986 single, 'Witches,' is finally getting traction after DJ found it in a UK record shop

(Newser) - A rare record-shop find has launched an obscure British '80s band into the spotlight. Zenana was formed in 1983 and released one single, "Witches," in 1986 (give it a listen here ). The synth-pop dance song never charted, the BBC reports, and the group disbanded the following...

It's Hard to Find a (Cheap) Home on the Range

At Yellowstone, a $40M gift looks to bring affordable housing to the park for staff

(Newser) - When Caroline Gold was accepted for her dream job working at Yellowstone National Park in 2021, she immediately informed her employer in Texas she was leaving. Then she started looking for housing in rural Montana near her new place of work. That's when she wondered, "Am I going...

She's Tiny, Tough, and Just Pulled Off a Huge Solo Feat

New York native Cole Brauer, 29, is first American woman to sail around the world solo

(Newser) - Living on Long Island, surrounded by various bays and harbors, the Long Island Sound, and the Atlantic Ocean, perhaps gave Cole Brauer a subconscious leg up on becoming the sailor she is today. The 29-year-old got to prove just how good of a sailor this week, becoming the first American...

Brothers Donate $5M to Honor Black Couple Who Helped Family

Gus and Emma Thompson rented a house to Chinese Americans in 1938 when nobody else would

(Newser) - In the late 1930s, a man born into slavery in Kentucky rented a house in Coronado, California, to a Chinese American family excluded from other properties under racist laws. That property is now worth some serious coin, and the family is paying it back with a $5 million gift to...

Library Comes Up With Purrfect Way to Forgive Lost Books

Worcester Public Library in Massachusetts is granting amnesty if you bring in cat pics

(Newser) - A Massachusetts library has implemented a temporary—and arguably purrfect—forgiveness program for those who've lost or damaged materials they've borrowed. The New York Times reports on the "March Meowness" initiative currently happening at the Worcester Public Library: For this month only, borrowers whose library cards have...

Dune Sequel Had a Secret Premiere 6 Weeks Ago

Director Denis Villeneuve screened film for sick man in Quebec palliative care facility as his dying wish

(Newser) - Dune: Part Two saw its official wide release on Friday—but a dying man in a Canadian palliative care facility had his own secret screening six weeks before the premiere, thanks to one woman's determination to fulfill his final wish. Josee Gagnon, whose L'Avant charity helps guide people...

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